Writing and revising and revising and revising a syllabus

Sitting down to write a syllabus for a theoretical class I might someday teach was not necessarily as easy as I originally thought it would be.  The process started by me simply spending so much time thinking about exactly what type of class I would teach.  Given my background in bioenergy, I decided to choose a class focused on this subject.  Then, I had to decide in that vast and wide topic what exactly I would hope to cover within a semester course.

            It was interesting to see how everyone’s syllabus compared to each other’s and to my own.  Dr. Curry really helped me to see the areas of my syllabus that could be toned down and those that needed more information.  He also emphasized to me the importance of having a late work/exam policy, which I had not fully considered before as how the student could claim that they can turn something in whenever they want, given that I did not provide an explicit policy.

            Working with Mariana on the “deep-dive” portion of the assignment, I was able to again see a syllabus given on a different subject than mine which allowed me to better self-evaluate my own and make sure that flow and clarity were present.  It was also nice to have the rubric for the deep-dive portion, as it allowed for looking for explicit details within the syllabus and checking whether they were there or not and whether they needed some more work or clarification.  Mariana provided me with some really great constructive points that I feel helped me to strengthen my final syllabus!

Student Introduction: Matthew McVey, Agricultural and Biological Engineering Ph.D. student

Hello everyone,

My name is Matthew McVey and I am in the first semester of my Ph.D. program in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.  I am being advised by Dr. Daniel Ciolkosz and am hoping to focus my research within some area of biofuel production. 

I am from Little Rock, Arkansas.  When I began my undergraduate studies at the University of Arkansas in 2010 I actually majored in creative writing.  After one semester, I realized majoring in creative writing might not provide the best opportunities and decided to switch my major.  My freshman roommate was an engineering major and convinced me to give it a try.  I chose to join the department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made!  In the summer of 2013 I took part in a summer research program at Auburn University.  It was because of this research program that I solidified my decision to go to graduate school. 

In January of 2016 I began my studies towards an M.S. degree here at Penn State (never in my life did I think I would live in Pennsylvania).  After successfully completing my Master’s degree at the end of 2017, I moved out of the state to pursue my Ph.D. and be a little closer to home at the University of Tennessee.  I soon realized that this was not a good fit for me and decided to look for job opportunities in Arkansas.  While applying for jobs, I was talking to my M.S. advisor (Dr. Ciolkosz who would eventually also be my Ph.D. advisor) and he informed me that there was funding available for a Ph.D. student.  So, after getting married this past October, my wife and I packed everything and moved back to Pennsylvania!  I am very excited to be back here in PA and given another opportunity to obtain my Ph.D.

I am really looking forward to this class as I have always had an interest in teaching and hope to use what I learn in this class towards my dream goal of moving back to my home state and becoming a professor focused on bioenergy at the University of Arkansas!